Clipmarks | ruralart's 'astronomy' clips

Astronomy pictures

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:46:49 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Neat site. Enjoy!

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Tags: astronomy

Life in Outer Space?

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:38:56 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Science fiction come true!

Clip Source: sciencenow.sciencemag.org

Space seed? Fragments from the Murchison meteorite contain DNA precursors.

The odds are improving that life exists beyond Earth. A European-U.S. team reports that a meteorite that formed billions of years ago and eventually crashed on our planet harbors two important components of RNA and DNA, the fundamental molecules of life. The findings could help explain how life got started on Earth, and they suggest that the ingredients for life have been liberally sprinkled throughout the solar system, if not the galaxy.

So far, the clues for extraterrestrial life are tantalizing but inconclusive.

suggest that life's most important molecule could form off our planet. The researchers dissolved and purified fragments from the Murchison meteorite, which was found in Australia in 1969. Chemical analysis showed that the meteorite contains xanthine and uracil, substances called nucleobases that are necessary for RNA and DNA to form their base pairs as part of their replication process.

Tags: life, science, physics, astronomy

Comprehensive Picture of Milky Way

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:17:57 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.spitzer.caltech.edu

Spitzer Captures Stellar Coming of Age in Our Galaxy

More than 800,000 snapshots from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have been stitched together to create a new "coming of age" portrait of stars in our inner Milky Way galaxy.

The image depicts an area of sky 120 degrees wide by two degrees tall. It was unveiled today at the 212th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in St. Louis, Mo.

Because Earth sits inside our dusty, flat, disk-shaped Milky Way, we have an edge-on view of our galactic home. We see the Milky Way as a blurry, narrow band of light that stretches almost completely across the sky. With Spitzer's dust-piercing infrared eyes, astronomers peered 60,000 light-years away into this fuzzy band, called the galactic plane, and saw all the way to the other side of the galaxy.

Tags: mildy way, astronomy, space, photography

Youngest Supernova discovered by NC scientist

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:33:19 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: ncsu.edu

A North Carolina State University researcher has discovered the youngest known supernova in our galaxy. Estimated at a mere 140 years old, this celestial whippersnapper is at least 200 years younger than the next oldest known supernova, and its discovery may pave the way to a greater understanding of exploding stars.

Dr. Stephen Reynolds, an astrophysicist at NC State, led a team of researchers who suspected that a celestial object known as G1.9+0.3 was a very young supernova remnant. They examined images of the object that were taken in 2007 by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory and compared these images to those taken of the same object in 1985 by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array radio telescope.

Tags: astronomy, space, science, supernova

Black Holes and Galactic Collisions

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:45:51 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Impressive and fascinating. I had no idea our galaxy was going to collide with another one!

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Homing in on Black Holes

To gain insight into the most mysterious objects in the universe, astronomers shine a light at the chaotic core of our own Milky Way

Without question, the Milky Way's black hole is the strangest thing in our galaxy—a three-dimensional cavity in space just ten times the physical size of our sun but with four million times the mass, a virtual bottomless pit from which nothing can escape. Every major galaxy, it turns out, has a black hole at its core. Now, for the first time, scientists have the chance to study the havoc these mind-boggling entities wreak.

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

However, a fearsome collision looms. The closest large galaxy, called Andromeda, is on a collision course with the Milky Way. The two will start to merge about two billion years from now, gradually forming a massive galaxy that Loeb and his Harvard-Smithsonian colleague T. J. Cox call "Milkomeda."

Tags: astronomy, astrophysics, stars, space, galaxy

Deep Sky web site with star maps and databases

Wed, 07 May 2008 02:21:19 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Lots of great info and pics on deep sky observing, including maps you can print.

Clip Source: www.uv.es

Welcome to this website, which is devoted to Deep Sky (DS) observing, my favorite hobby since long time ago, around 25 years. Deep Sky (or Deep Space) is the astronomy topic that covers all what is found beyond the Solar System, namely stars, stellar systems, dust and gas clouds, whose different manifestations ‑mainly nebulae, star clusters and galaxies‑ are not only physically amazing, but also awe‑inspiring sights to enjoy. The night sky is within reach of everybody. You just need binoculars, a dark place beyond the city lights, pristine skies, and a star atlas. I'd like to contribute to the promotion of deep sky observing offering you some articles and tools, the subjects I am more interested in:

In the frame on the top (if you don't see frames, click here), several tools, deep sky maps, articles, observation reports, pictures, tools and a deep space catalogue

Tags: astronomy, deep sky, nebula, galaxy

Planetarium for your computer

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:46:08 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: This looks really neat - enjoy!

Clip Source: www.stellarium.org

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go. view screenshots

Sourceforge

Sourceforge is the central website where we collaborate on Stellarium, and where you can be heard too!

Tags: planetarium, computers, stars, space, astronomy

Milky Way, the Universe, Galaxies and the development of theories

Mon, 05 May 2008 02:17:02 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: A bit on the history of discovery of galaxies and the Milky Way... rather interesting to see how it has evolved.

Clip Source: ircamera.as.arizona.edu

Discovery of Galaxies

Key points: How it was established that other galaxies are island universes of stars; standard candles and distances; the distance ladder

While the Milky Way was considered to be a thin, distorted disk of stars with the sun near the center in the early 20th century, other galaxies were confused with gaseous nebulae, and were assumed to be part of Milky Way.

The best pictures showed other galaxies to have spiral arms, but they also appeared smooth and were thought to be a special kind of gaseous nebulae, the "spiral nebulae".

By the 1920s, a debate was ranging among astronomers about whether the spiral nebulae were gaseous objects (HII regions) or separate "island universes" like the Milky Way. Vesto Slipher had obtained spectra that showed them to have continuous spectra, not emission lines, consistent with their being made of stars.

More on the debate at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/diamond_jubilee/debate_1920.html

Tags: astronomy, galaxies, milky way, history, science, space

Losing the Dark

Sun, 04 May 2008 22:35:56 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Maps showing the loss of dark over the last 50 years or so.

Clip Source: www.yosemite.org

Growth of Light Pollution in North America

The maps show artificial night sky brightness and are based on upward light measured by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program after accounting for propagation and scattering of that light in the atmosphere.

The night sky in all areas here which are not black (but have other colors) is considered polluted. Today, two thirds of the USA's population have lost naked eye visibility of the Milky Way.

The colors indicate the artificial night sky brightness as a fraction of the average natural night sky brightness.

Tags: astronomy, night, dark, sky, lights